As the battle against shopping cart abandonment intensifies, 1800Flowers.com relied on segmentation, A/B testing and push notifications to effectively target mobile shoppers this past Valentine’s Day, resulting in a five percent lift of abandoned carts conversion.

The floral and gourmet foods retailer teamed up with mobile marketing automation platform Appboy in a bid to entice more customers to follow through with the mobile checkout process during a recent sales-driving holiday, Valentine’s Day. After segmenting its audience and testing a variety of messages on mobile, 1800Flowers.com experienced a lift of approximately five percent in abandoned virtual cart conversion between Feb. 1 and Feb. 16 of this year.

“This case study is centered around an app user’s action rather than a specific time of day,” said Marissa Aydlett, vice president of marketing at Appboy. “There are many factors that contribute to message/campaign success. In this case, the success metric was the conversion: a product purchase.

“By using personalization and iterating quickly, 1800Flowers was able to see a 5 percent lift on abandoned cart conversions during Valentine’s Day promotions, an especially popular time of the year for the brand,” she said. “With Appboy’s triggered messaging based on user behavior, 1800Flowers was able to re-engage users when its app was still top-of-mind rather than focusing on a specific time of day.”

Arranging testing methods1800Flowers.com sought to combat the worrisome trend of consumers abandoning their mobile shopping carts at last minute ahead of one of its most lucrative holidays, Valentine’s Day. Shopping cart abandonment typically results in high amounts of lost revenue for online-based retailers, with the average documented rate clocking in at 69 percent, per the Baymard Institute.

The floral delivery service opted to join forces with Appboy and leverage the platform’s mobile push notifications to fuel more sales and persuade additional shoppers to follow through with their purchases.

Appboy’s segmentation techniques advised 1800Flowers.com to primarily target consumers who recently abandoned their carts within the brand’s app. This strategy helped reach customers who were close to making a purchase, but had reneged at the last second.

Mobile app users are also generally more engaged shoppers, as many users are unwilling to relinquish their smartphone real estate for an app from a retailer for which they have no affinity.

1800Flowers.com complemented its segmentation with A/B testing as well, which led the company to discover that offering a promotional code would convince more customers to complete the checkout process.

Consequently, 1800Flowers.com and Appboy distributed a 15 percent-off coupon code a half-hour after individuals abandoned their shopping carts. The promotional code was sent via push notifications.

Consumers responded positively to the unexpected discount, which resulted in a five percent shopping cart conversion during the first two weeks of February.

“The segmentation here was specific to those that abandoned carts but generally speaking, segmenting messages based on past purchase behavior vs. users who have not made purchases can be beneficial as well,” Ms. Aydlett said.

The campaign also enjoyed optimal timing. For customers attempting to decide which retailer to use for their Valentine’s Day gift orders, an impromptu promotional code was likely the very push they needed to select 1800Flowers.com over a competitor.

Benefits all aroundThese types of conversion-boosting strategies offer a multitude of benefits for customers and brands alike.

With the help of segmentation and A/B testing, marketers are able to glean valuable insights into shopper behavior and adjust their forthcoming targeting tactics accordingly. Meanwhile, app users receive timely push notifications reminding them of their forgotten shopping carts, in addition to exclusive discounts.

Another campaign done in conjunction with Appboy resulted in an abandoned cart conversion lift of more than 350 percent over the industry standard during an activation period between Nov. 3 and Feb. 15.

1800Flowers.com has been a longtime supporter of mobile commerce, as evidenced by its commitment to exploring new trends and keeping up with constantly-evolving customer demand.

1800Flowers also alerts shoppers as to how many other users purchased sought-after products

Executives from MillerCoors and 1800Flowers at the Mobile Media Summit Upfront at Internet Week 2015 conference highlighted their brands’ dedication to innovating in the mobile messaging space, particularly with emojis, in a bid to drive sales of products and reach millennial consumers (see story).

Additionally, a 1800Flowers executive at eTail West 2016 claimed that the speed and half-life of change within mobile is fundamentally different from other digital channels, meaning that brand leaders should leverage mobile internally and externally to break down silos and drive sales among new customers (see story).

“We learn a lot from our clients and the ways in which they use our technology to create better experiences for their end-users, each with their own unique use cases,” Ms. Aydlett said. “Customers have more control over the messages they receive from brands than ever before, so watching 1800Flowers understand and act on customer behavior in a smart way that benefits the customer and the brand is really great to see.”

Whole Foods and Instacart are bringing flowers to consumers’ homes ahead of Mother’s Day

Whole Foods Market is joining forces with delivery service Instacart to enable mobile shoppers to order Mother’s Day bouquets, reflecting how consumers are increasingly turning to delivery options on mobile.

The brands recognize that millions of consumers will be searching for the perfect bunch of flowers to send to their mothers on the national holiday, and hope that the exclusive partnership will help unbundle some of the hassle that comes with ordering flowers. Bouquets may be delivered in as little as one hour, and also come with a slew of personalization options.

“Based on the success of our Valentine’s Day collaboration with Whole Foods Market, we have high expectations for our Mother’s Day event,” said Andrew Nodes, business development lead at Instacart, San Francisco. “People love the convenience of Instacart delivery, especially people who wait until the last minute to take care of gifts.

“What’s exciting for Mother’s Day in particular is that, unlike traditional floral delivery, this partnership allows customers to order both flowers and other thoughtful items sent in the same delivery, and for a very affordable price.”

Mobile deliveryAs Amazon rolls out its Prime Now delivery service, which also drops off purchased items at customers’ homes in less than an hour, to more cities, other brands are clamoring to keep up with demand for mobile-enabled options.

With approximately 54 million American households set to purchase flowers around Mother’s Day, this promotion may also help relieve stress from Whole Foods Market employees nationwide.

Whole Foods and Instacart have previously partnered up for Valentine’s Day

Consumers interested in receiving flower delivery between May 1 and 10 can visit the Instacart mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or go to the Instacart.com Web site. There, they may choose from the two pre-selected Whole Foods bouquets, and tap the “note” feature to indicate their preferred color.

They may also attach a personal message that will be superimposed on a handwritten card. Customers are also able to pick a delivery time of within one hour, two hours or at another scheduled time, up to six days in advance.

While delivery fees typically begin at $3.99, Instacart waives the fees for first-time users, a tactic that is sure to bring in additional mcommerce.

The two flower selections are a bouquet of 20-stem tulips available in a variety of colors for $24.99, or a dozen Whole Trade roses, also in a plethora of colors, for $29.99.

Added convenienceWhole Foods fans seeking gifts and food items for their Mother’s Day activities may also use the Instacart mobile app’s “aisle” feature to purchase products such as chocolates, candles and teas to add on to their delivery orders.

All available items have been curated by Whole Foods Market experts, and may come with the bouquet to ensure a streamlined, convenient shopping experience.

Whole Foods delivery from Instacart is currently available in fifteen markets, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Los Angeles and more.

Instacart also offers delivery of grocery store items

Any food, beverage and gift marketers seeking to ramp up Mother’s Day sales should attempt to emulate Whole Foods Market’s footsteps and team up with a mobile-enabled delivery service to ensure that even time-strapped consumers can receive all of the materials necessary to have a great holiday.

“An event like Mother’s Day with a hard deadline is a great chance for customers to try Instacart delivery for the first time,” Mr. Nodes said. “Our aim is to delight them with that first interaction so that they keep coming back to us for regular grocery orders from Whole Foods Market and our other retail partners.”

Final TakeAlex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

]]>http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/whole-foods-instacart-open-aisles-for-mothers-day-mobile-promotion/feed0Red Cross launches app for blood donors with retail rewardshttp://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/red-cross-launches-app-for-blood-donors
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/red-cross-launches-app-for-blood-donors#respondTue, 09 Sep 2014 08:00:38 +0000http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/?p=73287The American Red Cross is launching its first mobile application for blood donations today to better communicate with its donors, with a retail rewards system that will seek to drive increased frequency.

The Washington-based nonprofit organization had launched its first mobile app in 2012 focusing on first aid, and has since expanded with a suite of apps for disaster preparedness and other initiatives. With the blood-donation app, the Red Cross is hoping that it can leverage the ubiquity of mobile devices to maintain better contact with its donors and to bring them in more often.

“We have a 50 percent no-show rate for blood donations, but through the app, we can send an in-app notification reminder 24 hours ahead of the scheduled donation time and another reminder an hour before,” said Grant Hansen, director of digital for the Red Cross. “I think this app has great potential for us to get donors to come in more often.”

The new Red Cross Blood Donor App will allow users to track their donations, earn rewards and invite friends to donate. It is being launched at the CTIA – The Wireless Association’s Super Mobility Week 2014 conference in Las Vegas this week.

Rewards for donors
The new app features a rewards program powered by WeWin, a division of New York-based Axle Digital, which has an extensive background in social commerce and relationships with several leading retailers and restaurants that will be offering rewards through the app.

“When someone comes in to donate blood, they are donating a physical part of their body, and we wanted to reward them for that,” Mr. Hansen said.

Users who donate blood will get a receive exclusive offers and discounts from the retail partners, which include Legal Sea Foods, ProFlowers, Plow & Hearth, Shari’s Berries, CitySports and 1A Auto, among others. Twelve retailers have signed on to participate at the launch.

Rewards can be either national or local in scope.

Donors can choose their reward.

The WeWin platform is the first application programming interface (API) rewards program integrated into a nonprofit’s mobile application, according to Syd Dufton, president and CEO of WeWin.

“The Red Cross wanted to add rewards from major retailers, and we were already working with all of these major retailers,” he said.

WeWin integrates directly with retailers’ ecommerce Web systems to help align them with the causes they support. Retailers it has worked with include Gap, Norstrom, Footlocker and The Fire Store.

It also offers a Web-based dashboard that allows nonprofit organizations and retailers to further engage with their donors and customers.

The Red Cross Blood Donor App also will offer users the ability to earn badges for reaching certain levels of donations, and can form teams to compete for blood donations.

The app will also allow the Red Cross to issue localized alerts if certain blood types are needed in certain areas.

Boosting frequency
Offering discounts and other special offers from retailers might not necessarily attract new donors to the Red Cross’ blood centers, but it could help to bring regular donors in more often, Mr. Hansen said.

Donors can give a pint of whole blood every 56 days, but the average donor only gives 1.8 times per year, or about once every 200 days or so.

“If we can turn a 1.8-times-a year-donor into a three-times-a-year donor, we can really save lives,” Mr. Hansen said.

With football being a prime focus of the fall season, Visa Checkout is attempting to expand its presence as mobile payments become more prevalent. A multi-channel approach, Visa’s campaign to promote Visa Checkout takes numerous paths of reach to appeal to a variety of consumers, which in this case, are all tech-savvy football fans.

“Research shows that a lot of NFL participation takes place on multiple screens,” said Chris Curtin, global head of new platform marketing transformation and chief digital officer at Visa, San Francisco. “NFL fans are tech savvy.

“They are buying NFL products both online and in-store, and because of that, teaming with the NFL was an attractive sponsorship for Visa Checkout to utilize. There is a huge push towards digital, and that’s where our product resides and will be used.”

Reaping rewardsVisa is promoting a new national holiday called Footballentine’s Day on September 6, which has been created for football fans to thank their loved ones for dealing with their obsessive dedication to the sport. Gifts retailer 1800Flowers will deliver 10 free roses to users enrolled in Visa Checkout.

Pizza Hut is giving away one million free pizzas to consumers who pay with Visa Checkout. Users can participate starting September 7.

Both 1800Flowers have mobile ordering on their mobile apps, where users can pay via Visa Checkout. Customers can also pay via Visa Checkout on desktop.

Visa Checkout has also created two television commercials. One stars famous players Drew Brees, Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck and Larry Fitzgerald. The other commercial features professional surfer Kolohe Andino. They can be seen on air starting September 7.

The commercials promote the simplicity of using Visa Checkout and the fact that these professional athletes can incorporate the platform into their busy lives. The athletes are shown using Visa Checkout on their mobile phones while in the midst of playing football and surfing.

Visa executives attempted to make this campaign wide-ranging given an emerging demographic of smartphone users that are constantly watching videos and are increasingly making purchases on their mobile devices.

Up and comingOnline computer hardware and software retailer Newegg recently added Visa Checkout for desktop and mobile users and motivating trial by offering a 10 percent discount on all Visa Checkout purchases.

Retailers can be apprehensive of giving new payment systems a chance but also the potential for Visa Checkout’s capabilities. Given Newegg’s online limitations, the retailer must provide as many purchasing options to ensure a seamless checkout process (see story).

Pizza Hut has supported Visa Checkout from the beginning.

In fact, Pizza Hut and Staples were among the merchants that began accepting Visa Checkout, which promises to streamline mobile checkout by digitizing consumers’ credit cards.

The new offering from Visa seeks to make payment easier by storing credit-card information online so that e-payments can be made on participating merchants’ Web sites without entering anything other than a name and password. It is replacing Visa’s previous efforts to roll out a mobile wallet through the V.me offering (see story).

Since Visa has been a sponsor of the NFL for many years, its launch of Visa Checkout will likely gain a good bit of attention this season.

“For the past 50 years, Visa has stood for many things,” Mr. Curtin said. “It is universally accepted, has high standards for security and trust, and it has always stood for simplicity.

“Now in a digital world, given an increase of complexity in the payment experience, we saw an absolute need for Visa Checkout, which alleviates the issues of keying-in billing, shipping and credit card information repeatedly.”

Final TakeCaitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

]]>http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/pizza-hut-1800flowers-teams-with-visa-checkout-as-nfl-season-kicks-off/feed0BloomNation’s BloomSnap shares photo of flower arrangement prior to deliveryhttp://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/bloomnations-bloomsnap-shares-photo-of-flower-arrangement-prior-to-delivery
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/bloomnations-bloomsnap-shares-photo-of-flower-arrangement-prior-to-delivery#respondMon, 07 Jul 2014 08:00:41 +0000http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/?p=69608Online floral marketplace BloomNation launched BloomSnap, a new project implemented to take the anxiety out of gifting flower arrangements with its mobile-optimized Web site and mobile ordering and payment options.

Once a local floral artisan has prepared a consumer’s arrangement, a photo is snapped and sent via email to the consumer, alleviating the guessing game and eliminating a disappointing delivery. BloomNation is an idea inspired by unhappy customers receiving flower arrangements in poor condition or appearing differently from stock photos in advertisements.

“Sending flowers is a very personal experience and often revolves around an emotional event,” said Gregg Weisstein, co-founder and chief operating officer of BloomNation, Los Angeles.

“The last thing you want is your thoughtful gesture misconstrued by wilted or underwhelming flowers,” he said. “Seeing an actual photo of the arrangement before it is delivered gives you assurance that you won’t be embarrassed by your gift.”

Snapchat for flowersOnce the arrangement is made, the florist takes a picture of the flowers and sends it to the purchaser prior to delivery, ensuring that what they bought is what they will receive.

BloomNation claims all of the flowers on its Web site are hand delivered by the local florist. The photos provided for reference on the site were taken and uploaded by a real florist, according to Mr. Weisstein.

The retailer assures there is no stock photography being used on the site, and consumers can be confident they are purchasing a gift that an experienced florist, who has created the arrangement before, is preparing it.

An example of a flower arrangement

BloomNation maintains a database of 2500 local florists delivering to more than 3000 cities across the United States and accepts Bitcoin payments.

Flower powerMany innovative changes have taken place among the floral delivery department, aiming to create a more pleasant and seamless experience for the consumer.

1800Flowers.com’s acceptance of Bitcoin payments in the fall reflects the retailer’s search for new ways to reach a growing audience whose financial dealings and purchasing increasingly happen in the digital realm, including mobile.

The Carle Place, NY, company will begin accepting the virtual currency through the Coinbase platform already used by Expedia.com, Overstock.com, DISH Network and other brands across its sites, including 1-800-Flowers.com, 1-800-Baskets.com and FruitBouquets.com. The move underscores the marketing buzz the mention of bitcoin can generate even though it is an unofficial currency and considered experimental (see story).

Earlier this year, 1800Flowers explored crowdsourcing to reduce costs and enhance the delivery experience for customers.

The Web-based floral and gift retailer announced a partnership with Deliv, a peer-to-peer network of shoppers and delivery people designed to give customers the choice of receiving their items whenever and wherever they want. The news came at a time when consumers’ options for same-day delivery were growing via services such as eBay Now, AmazonFresh and Google Shopping Express (see story).

Similarly, BloomNation aims to provide an interactive experience and give consumers more control over their purchases.

“Most online flower delivery services rely on drop-shipping or random florists to fulfill their orders,” Mr. Weisstein said. “This often results in wilted and old flowers or flowers different from what you ordered.

“BloomSnap takes the anxiety and guess work out of ordering flowers,” he said. “You no longer have to hope that what you ordered will actually get delivered.”

Final TakeCaitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant for Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

NEW YORK – A 1800Flowers executive at the 2014 MMA Forum pinpointed Amazon’s syndicated search as a big opportunity for retailers to reach shoppers, despite marketers’ notorious disdain for the online giant.

The “Marketing Like it’s 1999! Your Targeting Techniques Need an Update” session gave an overlook at how 1800Flowers hones its marketing strategy through mobile, social and Web tactics. Though Amazon is traditionally viewed as a threat to all types of retailers, the executive sees the online retailer as an additional distribution tactic on mobile.

“The traditional way of looking at Amazon is from a competitive lens, but when you get into mobile Web, I think Amazon starts offering some very interesting inroads to get in front of their customers,” said Amit Shah, vice president of mobile and social at 1800Flowers, Carle Place, NY.

“You may not be a listed marketplace seller, but through syndicated search, you can actually get in front of those consumers,” he said. “By the way, the three ads at the bottom of the screen is more ads than Google shows when someone searches for ‘flowers.’”

“Your distribution and ability to get in front of customers — even in walled gardens, if you will — is increasing.”

Going beyond geofences
Mr. Shah also discussed some interesting findings about the brand’s work with location-based advertising.

1800Flowers ran a study with Thinknear that looked at the response rates when the online retailer blasted out display ads.

Interestingly, the study discovered that from midnight to 4 a.m., click-through rates were significant, despite that the stores were closed.

As a result, 1800Flowers tweaked the second version of this campaign with content that was tailored towards these consumers. The ad unit included a link to 1800Flowers’ mobile site and a button that connected to 1800Flowers’ call center.

These new ads flipped 1800Flowers’ belief that location-based and targeted mobile ads were only effective at specific times of the day.

Mr. Shah also indicated that mixing up the content of the ad to better suit late-night consumers was a competitive advantage since other brands were likely not tailoring their efforts towards night.

Creative in location-based mobile ads can also be tweaked toward specific times of the year in both company-owned and local franchise stores.

For example, 1800Flowers can change creative during prom season in local franchise locations.

“The traditional way of thinking about geofencing is someone is near a certain location and you’ve conquested that location or you’ve put some vertical fences around it, and you’re seeking engagement,” Mr. Shah said.

“But I think that’s a very baseline campaign because it does not take into account the situation the user might be in, and that’s why we call it situational targeting,” he said.

Social targeting
The online retailer also relies on targeting during key times of the year, such as birthdays.

While targeting around a birthday is fairly easy, the trick is getting to a consumer’s online friends who can send birthday flowers.

Once a consumer has looked at birthday items online, 1800Flowers’ retargeting efforts kick in for a roughly one-week period.

One way to tap into this lucrative market is through data collected via a mobile app. Additionally, the app data can be segmented so that the brand can target specific types of consumers.

“Now I think sort of in the future when we think about the HTML5 world that we are going to go towards, this is going to become more precedent,” Mr. Shah said.

“This is not traditional segmentation,” he said. “Traditional segmentation is retroactive — you’re looking back. I want real-time segmentation. I want real-time behavioral understanding so that I can reach that user back in the right voice.”

Making sense of mobile data
Mr. Shah also discussed a few recent campaigns that 1800Flowers worked on with PayPal.

PayPal came up with a look-a-like model campaign that basically singled out a group of three million PayPal users with past shopping behavior indicating that they may be interested in buying something from 1800Flowers, but had not done so yet.

According to Mr. Shah, this campaign solves two major issues in mobile Web — email and promo codes.

The flower retailer sees 75 percent of its emails being opened on mobile devices, meaning that calls-to-action have to be tailored specifically for mobile users.

Additionally, the campaign automatically applied a $15 credit to a consumer’s PayPal account, which eliminates the tedious process of entering a promo code.

PayPal then ran a second version of the campaign that sent an offer to customers. A certain percentage of consumers click-through to redeem the offer, but did not use it immediately.

If consumers were not responsive to email, calls-to-action appeared in the consumer’s Facebook news feed. This portion of the campaign resulted in a 108 percent ROI.

“I think the future of targeting in my mind, with so much data and so many devices, is how do you set up these feedback loops,” Mr. Shah said.

“Ultimately, this data leads to targeting, but the targeting is not the end point in and of itself. It will also generate data that you can mine, and this is where I think the real DR ROI starts adding up.”

Final TakeLauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

1800Flowers is exploring crowdsourcing to reduce costs and enhance the delivery experience for customers.

The Web-based floral and gift retailer has announced a partnership with Deliv, a peer-to-peer network of shoppers and delivery people designed to give customers the choice of receiving their items whenever and wherever they want. The news comes at a time when consumers’ options for same-day delivery are growing via services such as eBay Now, AmazonFresh and Google Shopping Express.

“We can plug our existing Floral Delivery network into Deliv’s crowdsourced model and be the ‘crowd’ for them in some markets, which could increase our local florist profitability by increasing our delivery densities, which will lower our overall costs,” said Don LaFrance, vice president of logistics and supply chain solutions at 1800Flowers.com, New York.

“For our customers, an enhanced delivery experience is key and Deliv provides 1800Flowers.com with some of the tools we think are critical in today’s changing landscape,” he said.

Increased flexibility
1800Flowers is an early adopter of optimizing its online and mobile shopping experience.

The company launched a mobile optimized Web site six years ago and started tapping into applications three and a half years ago.

Vigorously investing in new ways to improve customer service, an executive from the company revealed that the brand is investing in mobile fingerprinting to track activity across devices on 200 different HTTP headers. The company discovered that with more consumers browsing but not necessarily shopping on mobile, their attention should be towards turning the growing mobile traffic into a sale (see story).

Along with the customer-based innovations 1800Flowers has relied on in the past, it’s employment of Deliv works directly with retailers to add a same-day delivery option into their checkout process online on mobile or in retail stores.

1800Flowers same-day delivery option

This enables retailers to maintain a direct relationship with customers without the need to redirect retailer’s customers to a third party to transact and arrange same-day delivery.

Deliv has partnered with nearly 100 national and regional retailers, as well as the four largest mall operators.

Deliv tracks and schedules deliveries in real time

Deliv’s same-day local delivery service promises tech-savvy shoppers their merchandise for the same price or less than having items shipped traditionally.

“Deliv’s crowdsourced model allows for more driver flexibility and increased package densities from other retailers which will drive down the company’s costs,” Mr. LaFrance said.

The enhanced delivery experience will also allow consumers to schedule deliveries during time windows when the recipient is likely to be at home.

Deliv expedites purchases to a desired destination

Quality and careDeliv drivers receive delivery tasks via GPS-enabled smartphones. Customers are able to rate their deliveries so the platform is able to prioritize the allocation of jobs to those with the highest ratings.

Customers can also watch their delivery on a map in real-time from pick-up to their desired destination.

“In addition to giving our customers real time tracking so they know where the delivery is in all facets of the process, Deliv provides 1800Flowers.com customers with the ability to create a video, expressing their sentiments, that can be played for the recipient at the point of delivery – a feature that enhances the gifting experience for both the customer and recipient,” Mr. LaFrance said.

Final Take:Michelle Saettler is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily

]]>http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/1800flowers-delivers-on-the-value-of-sentiment-via-crowdsourcing/feed01800Flowers’ mobile retargeting efforts bloom with fingerprintinghttp://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/1800flowers%e2%80%99-mobile-retargeting-efforts-bloom-with-fingerprinting
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/1800flowers%e2%80%99-mobile-retargeting-efforts-bloom-with-fingerprinting#respondFri, 07 Mar 2014 10:00:02 +0000http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/?p=63757SAN ANTONIO, TX — A 1800Flowers executive at eTail West 2014 indicated that initial tests around mobile fingerprinting were successful to the extent that the brand may have underinvested in the technology.

Executives from 1800Flowers, Williams-Sonoma and Alex and Ani were included on the “Connecting the Data ‘Dots’ in a Multichannel World” session about how the brands attribute and track information about shoppers. 1800Flowers tested mobile fingerprinting last year, but now the brand’s investments suggest that its investments in the tactic are growing and getting more aggressive in targeting cross-channel shoppers.

“We use that in display with a DSP trying to track so that if we were going to go prospecting in mobile, and then try to get back out to an ROI on that and feeling that because of ‘fat finger’ or whatever, it might convert in some other channel,” said Neil McKenna, director of online marketing at 1800Flowers, Carle Place, NY.

“We definitely saw some evidence of that,” he said. “We definitely would have allocated more money to there after doing these initial, directional result tests but feeling like it was the right thing. There was enough there to fund it.”

Digital blooming
1800Flowers works with a technology that leverages digital fingerprinting to track activity across devices on 200 different HTTP headers.

With more consumers browsing but not necessarily shopping on mobile, the goal is to turn the growing mobile traffic into a sale later when the consumer has more time to buy at a desktop.

Mr. McKenna said that the next big push for mobile and Web retargeting is around social.

Both Facebook and Twitter are able to marry up Web analytics and attribution so that marketers can understand the worth of each marketing tactic.

“The smart people will probably wind up repurposing some of these social analytics for that purpose,” Mr. McKenna said.

Saving waste
Figuring out ways to leverage digital to cut out marketing waste was another issue brought up during the session by Ryan Bonifacino, vice president of digital strategy at Alex and Ani, New York.

For example, the brand started using ereceipts in its stores as an alternative to a print version to better align with the brand’s ecofriendly products and mission.

Erecipts resulted in a 90 percent email capture rate, and most of the consumers opted-in to Alex and Ani’s email program.

“Now when you get complex with modeling the effectiveness of traditional media, you’re able to very quickly identify waste, so the question is, ‘what do you do with the waste?’” he said.

“So things like rolling in digital make a lot of sense. Rolling the waste from TV into pre-roll video is a fantastic story that’s happening now.”

Attribution challenges
According to Mohan Namboodiri, vice president of customer analytics at Williams-Sonoma, San Francisco, attribution has been an ongoing initiative for the company over the past five to six years.

The challenge primarily stems from taking the catalog-heavy retailer digital.

As opposed to other retailers, Williams-Sonoma is split equally between ecommerce and retail.

For the retail-only customer, the brand does not have a lot of insight into how the consumer shops online. This type of consumer has not shopped online and does not respond to email.

“The shift from catalog to ecommerce investment has been an ongoing process,” Mr. Namboodiri said.

“If you’ve been a Williams-Sonoma customer for 20 years, and it so happens that you go to that retail location every two weeks, to what degree can any of the marketing channels take credit for that?” he said.

“There is a component that is customer-driven. The marketing has worked. You’ve embedded that thing inside them and they want it. So the email didn’t really matter.”

Final TakeLauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York

Online retailers including 1800Flowers and ProFlowers are leveraging Valentine’s Day to turn one-time flower shoppers into loyal shoppers.

Compared to other verticals, online florists and gift companies are in a unique spot with mobile because of the amount of data and information that must be collected to submit an order. However, there are some new tactics and campaigns that show how online florists are increasingly getting mobile right.

“The flower category and most gift companies have an additional challenge when it comes to mobile,” said Carissa Ganelli, CEO/founder of LightningBuy, Bridgeport, CT.

“They must collect gift recipient information and incorporate delivery calendars that are more challenging from mobile devices,” she said.

“They are more challenging by virtue of the fact that they require additional data entry, clicks and screens to be scrolled than a more typical mobile transaction in which the customer is making the purchase for himself.”

Tracking down mobile users
On top of collecting shipping information and data, online florists have to then tie this information with delivery slots in real-time, which can also be a challenge.

Despite some of the setbacks with entering tedious amounts of information, click-to-call functionality and clean landing pages are two of the ways that online flower retailers are improving the mobile experience.

In fact, 1800Flowers was picked as one of the top retailers in LightningBuy’s recent study with the fewest number of clicks to checkout (see story).

Additionally, Ms. Ganelli cited FTD as a retailer that offers a tab on its mobile site called “Find Flowers Fast” to help consumers locate products quickly by date or geography.

To help 1800Flowers find interested new members, PayPal Media Network segmented out a group of PayPal customers who had not shopped at 1800Flowers yet, but showed that they may be interested in shopping from the online retailer.

These consumers were singled out through algorithms that look at purchasing behavior. This includes information on what other categories consumers shop from and looks at how frequently and recently they use PayPal.

The segment of three million potential customers received a $15 credit in their PayPal accounts, which could be used either via mobile or online. The amount was automatically applied when a consumer used PayPal to checkout from 1800Flowers’ mobile properties or Web site.

An email was sent to the list of consumers explaining that PayPal had deposited the funds into their account. Although mobile-specific redemptions were not broken out, mobile has become the primary way that consumers open and read email, meaning that there were likely a high number of consumers who saw and then used the offer from their smartphones and tablets.

The 1800Flowers email

1800Flowers claims that the $15 offer campaign generated a 240 percent return on investment. The email campaign was deployed on Oct. 10 and the offer ran through Nov. 30.

Since then, 1800Flowers has been running different campaigns with the same offer.

Similar to the email component, consumers saw the offer in the news feed, clicked through to a landing page and could then save the offer to be automatically applied when they shopped at 1800Flowers.

1800Flowers is also currently running a similar offer for Google Wallet users that incentivizes users to buy Valentine’s Day gifts using the Google Wallet checkout option on the brand’s mobile properties.

The Google Wallet email promoting 1800Flowers

Unlike some of the other online flower retailers, 1800Flowers has been pushing mobile heavily over the past few years.

Last year, an executive speaking at eTail East revealed that the company was using mobile fingerprinting to track cross-screen shoppers (see story).

Additionally, 1800Flowers was rated as one of the top retailers with the quickest mobile checkouts by LightningBuy in November (see story).

“[1800Flowers is] very aggressive with their mobile, digital and social activities,” said Sarah Hodkinson, director of marketing and offers at PayPal Media Network, Boston.

“We’re also going to be promoting next week offers for them via the app and PayPal Twitter handle, so they’re really embracing all forms of digital media and seem very innovative in their willingness to test different things and see what really drives performance for them,” she said.

“As you’re seeing the migration from desktop traffic in terms of online over to mobile, mobile is becoming an increasingly important channel [for the online flower retailers].”

Long-term loyalty
Since flower sales typically only spike a few times a year, online flower retailers are in a unique position to turn one-time buyers into year-long shoppers.

Although there are challenges around ensuring the freshness of products and pushing out quick deliveries, mobile may aid in facilitating some loyalty.

For example, online flower retailers would benefit from using mobile-exclusive deals or rewards to help retain users.

Online fresh flower retailer ProFlowers launched its first iOS application last week to help consumers order flowers quickly while on the go before Valentine’s Day – one of the biggest sales times of the year.

The ProFlowers app

Although the app is the company’s first stab at an iPhone and iPod touch app, there are several features that may be significantly helpful in retaining consumers after the upcoming holiday.

The app includes a curated list of 40 flower and plants for consumers to choose from.

To speed up the checkout process, the app can pull in contact information from a phone’s address book into the shipping field.

There is also a credit card scanning feature that aims to cut down on the number of steps that consumers need to take to make a transaction.

Finally, the app syncs with Facebook to set up notifications around upcoming special occasions and birthdays that remind consumers when it is time to send out a gift.

“Increasing mobile conversion has been an elusive goal for many ecommerce companies, and we believe the problem lies in the poor mobile app experience,” said Brady Cale, chief technology officer of ProFlowers’ parent company Provide Commerce, San Diego.

“With the acquisition of Sincerely late last year, we now have the opportunity to produce a great app that we feel will elevate the mobile commerce experience for our customers,” he said.”

Final TakeLauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

PHILADELPHIA – A 1800Flowers executive at eTail East said that the company is using mobile fingerprinting among other methods to get as many perspectives on consumer data as possible.

During the “Optimizing your marketing channels and Accurately Tracking Conversions” panel discussion, executives from Vistaprint, The Children’s Place, 1800flowers.com, Neustar AdAdvisor, Alex and Ani and Vermont Teddy Bear discussed the challenges in tracking mobile data. Since there is no persistent cookie in mobile, tracking can be difficult, so companies are left to experiment with different methods.

“We do use fingerprinting technology that can track when someone starts to buy flowers on a mobile device,” said Will Ferguson, vice president of display advertising, social media and affiliate marketing at 1800Flowers, Carle Place, NY. ‎

Some applications try to get around this challenge by opening Safari briefly to search for stored cookies.

That way it can attribute downloads to an event such as viewing a mobile ad. This, however, creates a less-than desirable experience for users, where they have to wait for the phone to open a new window before downloading the app.

An alternative method that Mr. Ferguson mentioned in the panel discussion is called fingerprinting. This process correlates pieces of anonymous information, such as such as IP address, operating system and browser version, from a user’s device.

Fingerprinting was originally created for banks to track consumer fraud and is very accurate. Fingerprint profiles can not be deleted and can be tracked across multiple devices.

Fingerprinting is cookieless, but requires brands to match criteria to information from apps and mobile sites.

Yet, since the information fingerprinting collects does not have any personally identifiable information, it is likely that the tactic will stick around.

The eTail East panel discussion

Florist fingerprints
For 1800flowers, fingerprinting is still in the experimental phase.

According to Mr. Ferguson, the company is waiting to see where Facebook and Google takes the playing field. The flower company is waiting for Facebook and Google to offer them analysis of user data.

For now, the company blends together a number of different digital tracking channels, such as a last-click, last-view model, a first-touch model and a logistic regression. 1800Flowers accumulates internal data points as well as external information.

“We try to make sense of the data and move forward from there,” Mr. Ferguson said.

“It’s a huge focus for our company to figure it out this year,” he said. “I think the industry is getting closer, so it’ll be interesting to watch.”

Final TakeRebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York